String Quartet No. 2 (Smetana)

In June 1882, after composing the monumental cycle Má vlast, the operas Tajemství (The Secret), Čertova stěna (The Devil's Wall) and other works, Smetana began thinking about the creation of his second string quartet.

In a letter to his friend Josef Srba, the deaf and dejected composer presents the difficulties with the work, his misgivings and fears.

The composition consists of four movements: Smetana said that the second quartet takes up from where his first finished: "...after the catastrophe, it represents the turbulence of music in a person who had lost his hearing".

[4] Its discontinuities and sudden outbursts caused even Smetana himself doubts; he wrote of the first movement, "It has a very unusual form and is difficult to understand.

A kind of breakdown prevails throughout the movement and will cause, so it seems to me, the players extreme difficulty.